Program Development and Award Advisor, WACAR (USG, UN, GAC, WB)

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future. As part of our internal mobility process, current incumbents in the existing regional roles will be given priority consideration for this position. Should the role open more broadly, all qualified internal and external candidates will be considered, therefore all are welcome to apply. The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) Department The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) Department has a growing portfolio of humanitarian relief, post-crisis recovery, and development programs under their remit. This work focuses support in five key areas: ensuring safety from harm, improving health, increasing access to education, improving economic well-being and ensuring people have the power to influence decisions that affect their lives. In all these programs, there is a drive to address the unique needs of women and girls (who represent the majority of those displaced) – and the universal barriers they face. The Awards Management Unit (AMU) Established in January 2016, the Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global department with the responsibility for identifying, securing, and managing all funding from statutory/government donors. The AMU is a bridge between donors and country programs: providing expert technical advice to the country teams, while maintaining portfolio-level visibility to ensure consistency and compliance and manage risk. This unit ensures that donor compliance policies and procedures are implemented consistently and supports all staff working across the award management cycle for all restricted funding from global government sources. West and Central Africa Regional Overview: The West and Central Africa Region (WACAR) supports effective, efficient, and high-quality programming by strengthening capacity around client outcomes, program quality, strategic positioning, and business development. It addresses overlapping humanitarian and development challenges—conflict, weak governance, and environmental degradation—through integrated, impactful approaches. WACAR prioritizes cross-learning, innovation, and harmonized technical strategies, especially in high-need areas. It ensures continuity of care and coordinated service delivery for clients on the move, while advancing strategic donor engagement through cohesive fundraising and regional collaboration. The region responds swiftly to country program needs, filling critical gaps and navigating access constraints, emergencies, and security shifts. It amplifies client and frontline voices to inform global advocacy and fosters strong team cohesion to enhance program delivery. WACAR focuses on cost-efficient and adaptive approaches to the evolving humanitarian and donor landscape, with a clear focus on resourcing country programs. WACAR comprises Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon and CAR, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Mali, Niger, Nigeria. The Purpose of the Role The PDAA supports country programs in West and Central Africa with donor compliance, award management, and producing high-quality donor deliverables. The role advises on IRC’s partnership system (PEER), manages donor relationships including with HQ counterparts, and contributes to business development efforts aligned with IRC’s strategy. As part of the Regional Program and Award Support (RPAS) team, the PDAA oversees a diverse award portfolio across humanitarian, recovery, and development sectors, liaising with country offices, HQ teams, and donors. The PDAA liaises with country programs, HQ departments and donor contacts to ensure high quality guidance and support to country offices throughout the award lifecycle. The successful candidate will have a strong track record of contributing to new humanitarian and development funding opportunities including, ECHO SIDA and German donors and a deep knowledge of donor rules and regulations, and experience collaborating with local partner organizations. Scope and Accountability This role has no line management responsibilities. Key Working Relationships Reports to the Senior Program and Awards Advisor (SPAA), WACAR, and works closely with RPAS team members, country program grants and partnership teams, and across all teams within the Crisis Response Recovery and Development Department, Global Supply Chain, Finance, Office of General Counsel, Technical Excellence, and other key departments within IRC. Donor and partner point of contact as applicable per region. Key Accountabilities Awards Management and Compliance • Manage a portfolio of awards for the WACAR region including USG, UN, WB and may include other donors as assigned. • Provide timely support on narrative reporting and post-award deliverables, guiding country offices on amendments, modifications, and submissions while collaborating with technical and financial staff. Provide support on budget realignments, changes in scope, NCEs and amendment help for project elements not captured at proposal development stage. Serve as first point of contact for country program-based awards staff to problem-solve, guide and advise country teams on compliance and post-award issues within the mentioned portfolio and to act as a connecting point between country program and other AMU teams to facilitate the timely flow of key information between them. • Manage donor relationships by maintaining communication on contractual issues, updates on program implementation and following up on compliance queries and securing changes and approvals as needed. • With support from the PAO Partnerships, guide and coach country offices on partner management policies, PEER system compliance and process sub-grants/partnership agreements as needed. Coordinate with the Sub-awards and Partnerships (S&P) team as needed. • With support from the PAO Partnerships, and as agreed on a case-by-case basis, review and help process sub-grants/partnership agreements in alignment with internal processes. • Provide support to and monitoring of projects to ensure compliance with donor guidelines and IRC internal requirements. Monitoring awards can take the shape of monitoring visits, project implementation meetings and targeted calls following specific donor internal guidelines and IRC established processes. • In collaboration with regional leadership (RVP, DRD, RFD), monitor award spending and help problem-solve for under-/over-spending. Partner with CPs and regional team as needed, to address implementations challenges. • Provide technical advice to country offices on ad-hoc queries on donor compliance issues in coordination with AMU’s Compliance and Policy team on non-routine and high-level compliance matters and escalate to leadership for support as needed. • Take part in meetings and calls with country teams where required to provide support and collaborate closely on specific issues related to donor compliance, submissions and/or monitoring/award management. • Ensure lessons learned from finalized projects are fed into the Business Development team. • Advise and support country programs appropriately to enable them to successfully follow internal IRC policies and procedures and maintain the integrity of OTIS data (e.g. OTIS, PEERS). • Stay informed about programmatic issues and security and political developments affecting implementation. • Advise CPs on additional surge support, gap-filling, and deployment resources. Coordinate with other members of the Program and Award Support Team and other AMU members for information sharing and establish coherent awards support. • Ensure proper donor-related and contractual documentation to support compliance and audit readiness (including maintaining up-to-date, organized award files). • Participate in the recruitment of and the onboarding of new CP Grants Coordinators/Heads of Grants teams Business Development • Support country offices with donor engagement, intel sharing and positioning with prioritized donors in the PDAA portfolio; prepare for and participate in donor calls as needed. • Represent IRC externally at e.g. country-specific meetings, with donors and stakeholder networks in donor capitals as needed. • Provide support on cyclical proposals and cost modification requests for submission, including negotiation support for prioritized donors. In specific cases, as agreed on a case-by-case basis in consultation with the Head of Business Development (HBD), SPAA and Director, Awards Management (DAM), provide proposal development support for opportunities linked to prioritized donors within the PDAA portfolio. • Collaborate with regional technical leads and technical advisors, country offices, and other colleagues to support conceptualization of winning proposals and designs for new project activities and/or amendments to current projects. • Provide quality assurance and quality compliance support on proposals. Ensure responsiveness to and compliance with solicitation documents and with IRC’s requirements, including the PEER system. Together with PDA, review agreements to ensure accurateness and highlight key compliance requirements, in coordination with compliance and country grants teams and support in award negotiation and hand-over as required. • Maintain complete and accurate electronic files, including final submission packages and internal trackers. • Deploying to country programs to lead on proposal development, as available. Capacity Building and Training • Contribute to the development of training materials, and deliver training to in-country staff, as required and in coordination with the Director, Awards Management (DAM) and PAS leaders. In coordination with the DAM and PAS leaders, develop and maintain work-processes and checklists for award implementation and report review, as well as record lessons learned. • Onboard new country office Grants and Partnerships staff and new Program and Award Support team to assigned donors, policies and/or IRC processes, as requested. • Mentor and coach Grants and Partnerships staff on IRC systems and processes to ensure capacity is built at country level. • Other Responsibilities • Contribute to AMU and regional strategic priorities and initiatives. • Actively participate as a member of the Regional PAS Team, engaging in strategy development and other initiatives as needed. • Other duties as assigned by supervisor. Person Specifications Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications: • Degree, preferably in a subject related to IRC’s work (International Relations, Refugee or Migration Studies, Development Studies, Public Policy) or equivalent experience • Fluency in English and French, both spoken and written • Experience with and a strong understanding of European and German donor requirements required • Good understanding of humanitarian aid and development programming • Ability to work collaboratively as part of a diverse team and handle a multifaceted workload • Good financial management and budgeting skills • Ability to analyze and synthesize information • Proven organizational skills, detail-oriented, ability to prioritize tasks, and to learn quickly • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills: the ability to successfully and effectively liaise with people within and across departments in a multi-cultural environment. • Ability to work independently in a very fast paced environment • A flexible work attitude and calm manner • International work experience in the Global South is a plus • Excellent IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel) • Ability to travel internationally, sometimes on short notice and to insecure areas (15%?) Experience: • Experience in working at a distance and supporting country-based staff • Experience writing, reviewing and editing narrative and financial reports and excellent attention to detail Compensation: (Pay Range: $97,400 - $116,560) Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements. Standard of Professional Conduct: The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality. Cookies: https://careers.rescue.org/us/en/cookiesettings Compensation: Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements. US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $143 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles. Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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